Breaking Ground On The New Locker Room

MOORHEAD, Minn. (5/20/13)—Concordia held
the official groundbreaking ceremony for the multi-million dollar
locker room facility as part of the “Update the Jake”
Outdoor Facility Project on Monday.

“Faith and family is at the core of who we are,”
commented football coach Terry Horan. “And
it sure makes me proud to see how - time and time again - our
Concordia family and friends who have incredible faith in the
mission of our college have stepped up to the plate and finished
this project.”

The locker room is the third phase in the outdoor facility project
and will cost approximately $2.9 million. It will feature locker
room space for the football team and women’s soccer teams in
the fall and the baseball and softball teams in the spring. The old
football locker rooms will be updated and house locker rooms for
the men’s soccer team in the fall and men’s and
women’s track and field teams in the spring.

Between football, two soccer programs, baseball, softball and two
outdoor track programs, the facility will serve around 400
student athlete participants. The increased numbers in all
seven programs over the course of the last 20 years have created
tremendous strain on athletic training, laundry and equipment
needs. The new locker room facility will be the first major
building improvement to the outdoor athletic complex since Jake
Christiansen Stadium was built in 1966.

“The facility is a testament to the success in recruiting
student-athletes to Concordia,” stated former Athletic
Director Larry Papenfuss.

Papenfuss, who is now the Director of External Relations and was
one of the lead fundraisers on the project, went on to say,
“the athletic recruitment of our coaches has become
increasingly important to the success of the college's overall
recruitment goals.”

The locker room will be named the Wayne and
Beverly Thorson Athletic Center. Wayne attended
Concordia and has served on the Concordia Board of Regents. He is a
retired businessman who owned and operated his own construction and
contracting business in Bemidji.

“We are so thankful for the gracious and generous gift
of our former regent, Wayne Thorson, and his wife Beverly,”
stated Papenfuss. “They know how significant this project is
for athletic recruiting. We could not have gotten it done
without their faithful support of Concordia.”

In addition to the locker rooms, the facility will include a
state-of-the-art training room as well as a brand new laundry
facility and equipment room space. The training room will be named
the Sanford Health Athletic Training Facility after a donation from
Sanford Health.

“I want to extend a special thanks to Sanford Health for
their ongoing support of Cobber athletics and for the training
room,” noted Concordia President Dr. William
Craft.

The construction for the locker room started at the beginning of
May and will continue for the next nine months. The locker room
will be available for use in the spring of 2014 and will be
officially dedicated on Homecoming weekend of 2014.